Every year, whenever the Auditor General’s Office presents its report to parliament it is like they copied and pasted the previous year’s report. The similarities are very glaring; the mistakes in the financial audits in government entities are the same and the culprits remain unchanged. The only changes are in the figures of losses incurred and the administrative leadership which experience a high rate of turnover. Now it seems that the Senate has had enough and it is calling for some heads to roll. What irks it most is that every audit report talks of unsupported expenditure, development project that are abandoned midway or simply negligence that leads to losses that go into billions. An example is that last fiscal year, the AG reported that 83 projects were not fully implemented due to various human failings. But whatever level of the Senators’ anger, the buck stops with them and they should not look for scapegoats elsewhere. Every year, the AG makes recommendations which are never implemented. And as the AG aptly pointed out, most of those heads of parastatals are approved by the Senate, so they should be in a position to ask for accountability. But stopping financial haemorrhage is not the responsibility for any one institution but concerted efforts by all stakeholders. What the Senate should be doing is spearheading reforms in conjunction with the Lower House so that all loopholes are plugged. Otherwise, sounding the alarm is not enough; it should go a long with strict sanctions so that leaders entrusted with the country’s resources are at all times aware that mismanagement has its consequences
